Avoiding with Stories

Summary

In the chapter I began to read during this week, Sydney and Frankie are waiting for Gigs, and in the meantime, Sydney asks questions to Frankie. These questions could lead to further questions that Frankie doesn´t want to answer so, to avoid them, he talks about his aunties and what he used to do with them. Frankie currently worries about a camp that his class is going to go to because he doesn´t want to leave his mom if he decides to go. Mr. A, Frankie´s teacher, has his students go to work with their relatives one day so they can see how their workplaces are and what they do while they are there. Frankie decides to complete this day with his brother Louie who works in a company named De Souza. After some time, they decide to a break in a restaurant, and there, they begin to see what type of birds their family and friends would be if they were a bird. When Frankie asks Louie what type of bird his mom would be, Louie tries to avoid the question. He then realizes that he had never talked about his mom nor his family with Louie.

 

 

Quote 1

“He would feel nauseous with anxiety about Ma. (Who would do her errands? Who would keep her company? Who would chat to her at night when Uncle G was working and Gordana was doing as she pleased? Who would keep a constant and careful – though carefully nonchalant – eye on her? Who would hold her hand when she was feeling a little wobbly?)” (p. 80)

As said before, Frankie doesn’t want to go to the camp because of his mother and the many reasons why he doesn’t want to leave her. When I read this quote, I recognized how much Frankie loves Ma and how he wants to protect her, but maybe, he is a being a little over reactive because the camp is not going to last a very long time and, if he goes, Ma is going to be with Uncle George and Gordana. I have also realized that Frankie is very jealous when it comes to other people being with his mom because he gave Sydney a couple of rules when she was going to be with Ma.

Quote 2

“And then it came to Frankie what Louie reminded him of. Himself, him, Franke. Himself babbling away to Sydney, going on and on and on about the Aunties that day, trying desperately to fill the air between them with words, any words, to summon up a cloud of words so big, it shut out the intensity of her focus, deflected her questions about his times with the Aunties’ house, her inevitable questions about Ma.” (p. 108)

What happened in this quote is something that is related to the real world because sometimes we try to avert certain questions or situations by changing the topic of conversation or trying to do something else. When Louie did this, it didn’t work because he ended up answering Frankie’s question about what type of bird Ma would be is she was a bird. On the other hand, trying to avoid Sydney’s questions by extending his story about the Aunties did work for Frankie. I think it’s something that people do because they maybe feel uncomfortable about the answer to a question or for many other reasons too.

Conclusion

On the next chapters, I would like to figure out why Frankie’s mom never leaves the house and why Frankie doesn’t want to talk about it with other people. And as I said in the last blog post I would also like to know what the 10 p.m. question is. Something interesting about the book is that every night, Frankie asks a question to his mom and most of the time, they are related to some disease or issue that Frankie thinks he has. I believe that this is part of his personality, of his constant worries. On this book, the author makes sure that people’s personality are shown like Frankie’s is and Sydney’s, for example, that is curious and, unlike Frankie, free of worries.